I am not saying there are only 10 commercial roofing installation mistakes that can be made. These are just the most common.

And be aware that there are no requirements to be a roofer in Texas. Now that you understand the field of participants, here we go:

1. Steep slope roofers who install water shedding systems try to do low slope water proofing systems. These fail miserably. Use a roofer who is at least certified with the roofing manufacturer to install their product. Even then BEWARE. Do I have your attention? The number one reason commercial roofing installation fails is due to improper installation.

2. Roofing over wet material. This can cause dry rot, mold, rust and other material failure. It will also cause asphalt roof systems to blister and fail.

3. Installing a new roof system over two or more existing roof systems. Two layers of roof systems are all that is allowed so as not to overload the deck with too much weight.

4. Wall termination consisting of a termination bar with sealant and no counter flashing. Even though some manufacturers approve this detail, it does not work. The termination bar will deflect during its life and cause a separation between itself and the wall material allowing water to enter.

5. Scupper flashing that is not properly flashed into the collector head or sealed to the exterior wall material. Any gap between these materials will be susceptible to water entry as the water running through the scupper will swirl inside the collector head and find the gap.

6. Roof drains that do not have proper sealant under clamping ring. Same as above. All the water from the roof area is running to these drains and swirling around. Any pin hole opening is like having a hole in the bottom of your pool.

7. Metal drip edge not “sandwiched” into roofing system. If this metal edge is not properly secured or covered the water trying to leaving the roof at this edge will migrate under the edge and be wicked up under the roof membrane via the insulation.

8. Pipe or other penetration flashing not clamped 8” above the roof surface and not properly targeted at the base. With no clamp, water can run down the outside surface of the pipe and into the building. The target is covering a large pipe hole. If it is not done well it has a big hole through which to enter the building. Most targets are installed by hand, not machine, and are more susceptible to human error.

9. End laps of rolled goods not properly lapped or secured allowing seam failure. Again, this work is done mostly by hand, not machine, and is sporadic, contributing to the human error factor.

10. Penetration pockets not filled and mounded on the top. If not filled properly the pockets will hold water, causing material degradation and failure.

Spurred by a flourishing tourism industry, commercial sex tourism is equally growing rapidly on the Kenyan coast, and gaining increasing acceptance as a valid income earner.

With her sleeping six-month-old baby daughter under one arm, 17-year-old Alice (not her real name) explains why she moved to Mombasa from ‘up country’, and how she joined the growing ranks of young girls involved in the commercial sex trade on the Kenyan coast.

“When I was sixteen, I became pregnant and my parents were very upset. They threw me out of my home and I dropped out of school, so my boyfriend and I decided to move to Mombasa to start a new life. After three months he left me, and I had to find a way to make money. There are no jobs around here, and I had no money. I had to buy food to feed my growing baby. I just carried on from there,” she said.

Serving ideally ‘mzungu’ male tourists, but otherwise locals, she does not see herself as a prostitute, preferring instead to be referred to as someone who practices ‘bangaisha,’ a ‘Sheng’ word meaning ‘soliciting for business’.

According to a United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report, commercial sex tourism is growing rapidly on the Kenyan coast, and gaining increasing acceptance as a valid way of earning an income, spurred on by a flourishing tourism industry. According to the Kenya Tourism Board, 1.68 million tourists visited Kenya in 2005.

The UNICEF report says that out of all the girls interviewed for its survey, 76 percent felt that commercial sex was an acceptable way of making money.

This opinion is backed up by Mathilda Katana, field coordinator for SOLWODI (Solidarity with Women in Distress), a Kenyan NGO which provides support to commercial sex workers (CSW) on the Kenyan coast. Katana operates the NGO’s branch in Mtwapa, a suburb of Mombasa, where CSWs are trained to learn new skills, are offered counselling, and the younger ones are encouraged to return to school.

“You see a lot of them around here. It’s a hot spot. They walk around and show themselves off. They have decided that is how they earn their living and they don’t care,” she said.

Forced

With so many tourists on the coast, and so few other jobs available, for some there is little option other than to join the sex trade. “There are no jobs and to get a job is very hard. We look for jobs but we can’t get any because they are so few,” said Alice

Many other young women, however, are forced into prostitution by members of their family, according to Stella Muchiti Mulama, assistant programme manager and researcher for the Straight Talk programme. The programme runs youth-focused media events such as radio shows, monthly magazines, and a website. Its aim is to lobby decision makers, and enable youth to discuss issues affecting their lives, such as their involvement in sex work.

“Children are often coerced into prostitution by elder people. Parents actually push their children to do sex work. It happens quite a lot. Sometimes mothers, who are also involved in sex work, bring their daughters into it too. We have had stories of mothers forcing their children to have sex with clients in order to earn their school fees,” she said.

Elizabeth Akinyi, the head of projects at the Coast Province branch of SOLWODI agrees with this view: “Parents play a big role. The children of sex workers are at a greater risk. They are abused by the customers that come to see their mothers; sometimes the girls are also made to serve the men.”

There are however many other factors that bring young women and girls into the sex industry: peer pressure, financial and social circumstances, and low aspirations, added Akinyi.

“Peer pressure is also a big factor as well as lack of basic needs. There are children who are staying in families that are very poor. There are parents who can’t even afford to give their children sanitary towels. There is also the issue of ‘this is what I want’. There was one girl who was saying to me, ‘I wanted to buy these hipster jeans, but my mother refused, so I did this [prostitution] so I could get the jeans’,” she said.

High Earnings

Although earnings in the sex trade can vary widely, potential income is much greater compared to working in any other profession.

According to sex worker, Jane (not her real name], 22: “It (the income) depends on the competition, the season and where you are. It’s never specific. In the low season you end up offering yourself for Sh 20 if the tourists aren’t there. It can be Sh 5,000 if the tourists are there. House help is very badly paying. I used to go around and wash people’s clothes. But at the end of the day they give you Sh 150, which is nothing. So you have to look for other ways to pay rent and buy clothes,” she said.

It is tourism, and more importantly the tourists themselves, that bring these young girls to Mombasa. Due to the tightening of laws in places like Asia, many of the ‘mzungu’ tourists who go abroad to abuse underage girls are now flocking to Kenya, where laws are seen as lax.

However, it is with these ‘mzungu’ tourists that the girls can earn the most, so they have become their preferred clients.

According to Julia, 17, from Mtwapa: “My target is always ‘mzungus’, but I do appreciate the locals too. But the mzungus are the ones with the money.”

She added that because of her age, she was at a disadvantage when it came to negotiating with mzungus, who she described as ‘very arrogant’.

“Two nights ago, I was with a mzungu man in a local bar. He was buying me drinks and we eventually agreed that I would go back to his place. We had already agreed on a price, but after I had sex with him, he refused to pay me. He said that he had been buying me drinks, and that was my payment. When I challenged him, he beat me,” she said, pointing at the bruises near her left eye.

AIDS and Condoms

HIV/AIDS plays a big part in the lives of young CSWs on the coast and in Kenya more generally. The US Census Bureau projected that there are currently more than 1.8 million children living in Kenya who have been orphaned by AIDS, and at least two of the young women in this feature said they had ‘no parents’.

A lack of parental guidance and the poverty that the majority of AIDS orphans face in Kenya, forces many into becoming CSWs.

Astrid Winkler is project manager with RESPECT, an Austrian NGO which is a member of ECPAT International (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography, and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes) and a key implementing partner of the ‘International Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism’ within Kenya.

Winkler said, “Many children are orphans because of HIV. This often leads to them dropping out of school, and lack of education. I see it as a kind of ‘vicious circle’, starting with poverty, HIV, neglect, and ending in the sex business at the coast.”

Most young sex workers are knowledgeable about AIDS. However, in many cases, their circumstances often force them to have unprotected sex, as sex tourists offer more money for sex without a condom. The UNICEF report of 2006 found that more than 35 percent of girls did not use condoms at their client’s request.

“I try to use condoms every time, but sometimes they refuse or offer much more money if we don’t. If I am offered Sh 200 by a ‘mzungu’ for sex with a condom, or Sh1,000 for sex without, then I don’t use condoms. I have to feed my baby,” said Alice, 17.

Some more experienced CSWs use the threat of AIDS as a defence mechanism, in order to force their male clients to use condoms.

“We use condoms as much as we can. But we don’t have any other means to survive, so if they refuse then we have to go with that. Sometimes I lie and tell them that I am infected with AIDS to force them to use condoms, but I don’t have AIDS. AIDS is a big worry,” said Tia [not her real name] a 23-year-old CSW in central Mombasa.

Local Community

According to the UNICEF report, Kenyan clients represent 40 percent of the total number of clients the girls have. However, the girls are not accepted in the local community, making their lives even harder.

“People abuse you and call you names and make you feel like nothing. It has forced me to move three times in two years,” said Tia.

Others however, including Alice, regard the negative attitude of the local people as merely an occupational hazard.

“I do get in trouble (with the locals) but I don’t really care what the community thinks; my life is hard enough,” she said.

The Future

Figures on the number of young women involved in prostitution are difficult to calculate accurately because of the subversive nature of the industry itself. However, the International Labour Organisation estimates that there are some 30,000 girls under the age of 19 engaged in prostitution within Kenya.

The government has introduced measures which are meant to protect young girls and boys from prostitution. They have however been harshly criticised in the past for being lax in their approach to implementing the laws.

Nevertheless some laws and acts have been passed through parliament. These include the ‘Children’s Act’ of 2002, which protects those aged 18 and under from sexual exploitation, prostitution and pornography. There is also the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act of 2003, which penalises rape and attempted rape with life imprisonment, and states that ignorance of the age of the female victim is irrelevant in establishing culpability.

Furthermore, the Penal Code includes offences such as child abuse, sexual exploitation and child prostitution, with sentences for those convicted rising to life imprisonment.

In 2006, the Kenyan Tourism Ministry, along with the Kenyan Association of Hotel Keepers and Caterers (KAHC) and RESPECT, introduced the ‘International Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism’ The Code is an ECPAT project, funded by UNICEF, and supported by the World Tourism Organisation. Those who sign up to the Code in the tourism sector commit themselves to “establish ethical policy regarding the sexual exploitation of children, introduce a clause in contracts with suppliers stating a common repudiation of commercial sexual exploitation of children, and provide information to travellers by means of catalogues and brochures”.

According to Winkler, “the Code is a preventative measure for the tourism sector to become more proactive in prevention, rather than struggling with the negative impacts on the destination due to increased sex tourism.”

The Code is proving a success and has been backed by 20 Kenyan Tourism districts, the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife, and the Ministry of Home Affairs/Department of Child Services.

Yet despite this progress Akinyi feels that there is a lot more the government could do.

“The government has signed the Code, but so what? They have to put pressure on the hotels and tourism organisations that have not signed it, monitor the hotels that have; and law enforcement has to be committed to enforcing the laws,” she said.

She added that more needs to be done to spread awareness of the Code and the sexual offences act, which stated that a person can be prosecuted for a crime that is viewed as an offence in two countries. The Act means that the sexual offender can be prosecuted in Kenya and in his home country.

“We need to make sure that everyone has information about the Sexual Offences Act and the Code of conduct, so that people can be monitoring and reporting, but they are not aware. So we need to raise awareness,” she said.

The girls themselves do hope one day to move out of the ‘bangaisha’ business. However, the competitive nature of the work means that most of the money the girls earn goes on attracting clients.

“I would like to have a salon because I am good with hair. The problem is the money you earn; you end up spending it to buy clothes to look good, and on doing your hair. It’s very competitive, so it’s hard to save enough money to get on with the future,” said Tia.

Organisations like SOLWODI, which since 1997 and despite limited funding, have managed to rescue more than 5,000 young women from the commercial sex business.

Nevertheless, without further implementation of programmes like the Code, and with the ever-present pressures of poverty, unemployment and AIDS, coupled with the relatively high earnings to be made in commercial sex work, the road to the abolition of youth commercial sex workers on the Kenyan coast appears to be a very long one.

A Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Commissioner Andrew Okello has been appointed the International Monetary Fund(IMF) regional advisor in charge of East and Central Africa on tax matters.

Okello landed the lucrative job last week.

He was until the appointment the Commissioner for Domestic taxes at KRA.

In his new capacity, he will advise the IMF on strategic tax matters.

Mr Okello has been credited with the major tax reforms at KRA, that saw the authority introduce various reforms, including the tax registers project.

Yesterday, KRA Commissioner General Michael Waweru described Mr Okello as a dedicated worker, whose drive for success was unparalleled.

Among the reforms that Okello has steered includes the enactment of the ETR, the Simba module 111 project, and the sealing of various loopholes through which KRA lost millions of shillings.

Okello and Commissioner of Custom Services Rose Namu made history when they became the first serving KRA staff to be appointed commissioners via competitive interviews.They were recruited by KPMG Peat Marwick, after the jobs were advertised in the media.

Previously, Commissioners were hand picked by the Office of the President, a system that has since changed.

Okello will work under the East African Regional Technical Assistance Centre charged with overseeing operations in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Okello, a career civil servant worked in the ministry of Finance where he served as the Assistant Director within the Fiscal and Monetary Affairs Department.

He lauded Okello for being among the key figures in designing reform programmes among other administrative measure which have propelled KRA to the current high profile organization status with unprecedented revenue yields.

“KRA wishes to thank Okello for his dedicated five years with the Authority and wishes him well in his future endeavours,” he said.

Okello holds a Bachelor of Arts (Economic) Honours Degree from the University of Nairobi, a Masters of Arts (Development Economics) from Williams College, Massachusetts (USA) and a Masters of Business Administration from Bath University (UK).

Recently KRA was admitted as an Associate Member of the prestigious Inter-American Centre of Tax Administrations (CIAT). The recognition is as result of the authority’s performance in the implementation of tax administrative measures. Other Associate Members of CIAT are Czech Republic and South Africa.

Following the admission KRA was invited to the 40th CIAT General Assembly in Florianopolis, State of Santa Catarina , Brazil, which took place on April 6, 2006. Among those who attended the meeting included the Commissioner General, M. G. Waweru together with Andrew Okello, Commissioner of Domestic Taxes – Domestic Revenue.

Three more children have died in Nyanza province, bringing to eight infants who have succumbed to an overdose of the measles vaccine in the area.

The three died yesterday after their mothers, ignorant of the dangers of repeat dosage of the vaccine and Vitamin ‘A’ supplements, took their children for fresh vaccination in a span of 15 hours.

Two died suddenly at the Homa Bay District Hospital after receiving the repeat dose.

Homa Bay District Medical Officer of Health (MoH) Dr Dan Otieno confirmed the deaths but claimed they may have been caused by other ailments.

“I am made to understand that the parents of the deceased children had failed to alert medical personnel that their children had been suffering from other ailments,” he said.

The third child was said to have died in a rural post in Rangwe.

Reports showed the two who died in hospital had been vaccinated earlier for the same disease at Shauri Yako Primary School the previous day. But apparently oblivious of the dangers of repeat dosages, mothers destroyed Monday’s vaccination certificates and wiped out ink marks on their fingers imprinted at the first vaccination exercise and went for the repeat dose.

Yesterday, the Dr Otieno attributed the deaths to ignorance by the mothers, who he said, ignored advice from health workers.

“Prior to the commencement of the exercise each day, the health workers always pointed out the dangers of taking a repeat dose of the measles vaccine and Vitamin A supplement, but some mothers ignored this,” said Dr Otieno.

Elsewhere, in Kakamega district, several children have reportedly died over the past few weeks after being vaccinated for measles more than once. Several others are admitted in hospitals with complications.

In Shinyalu division a three year old baby died on Tuesday after receiving two jabs in different hospitals.

Mothers in search mosquito nets donated alongside the vaccine are said to present their children for more that the required single measles dose. The Shinyalu fatality the child died after receiving two jabs at Shikusi Dispensary and at Mukumu Mission Hospital within 24 hours. It developed complications and died as the mother received a second free net.

Local residents told Kenya Times that mothers had been forewarned against multiple vaccination as reports showed 80 per cent of children under five have been vaccinated in Western province.

Western Provincial Medical Officer of Health, Dr Olang’a Onudi said he is investigating the report vaccine deaths and disclosed that children from Uganda have been brought for the exercise which ends today.

“We are just being informed that children are dying due to the measles immunization but we are yet to get any more details to enable us act. We are appealing to anybody with more information to help us so that we can take immediate action,” said the PMO.

Dr Onundi said the influx from Uganda, reported in Busia and Teso districts, had caused a shortage of mosquito nets. He also said some mothers presented older children for vaccination to get the antimalarial nets.

The ministry of Health launched a country wide vaccination campaign for children aged between nine months and five years in the wake of a measles outbreak.

A crop of widows in Nyanza are breaking the last Aids barrier by rebuffing a long held cultural practice reports Charles Aboge.

When Mildred Akinyi, A HIV positive widow recently declined a proposal to be inherited, the entire community was stunned.

Her decision sparked a series of heated debates over this deeply rooted cultural practise highly prevalent in West Kenya region. But since then, Akinyi, who is a member of the St. Monica Widows Group which operates under the Catholic Archdiocese in Siaya has been viewed as a hero. Her decision has brought reprieve to countless widows in the region.

Defiant but astute many widows in Nyanza province are now breaking free from the fetters of this cultural practice.

Father Thaddaeus Oluoch, the chaplain of the Catholic Archdiocese of Kisumu while condemning the practice says it has subjected women into highly demeaning rituals.

“It involves forced ritual sex seen as a form of cleansing and the women are often harassed”

In some cases, some of the widows either get infected with the Aids virus or help spread it. However, inheritance is taking new dimension as some Luo elders at the village level in Siaya are allegedly encouraging some widows suspected to be HIV positive to hire commercial inheritors at an exorbitant fee.

Father Oluoch who works with the defiant widows, has expressed concern over the number of “commercial inheritors christened “joter” who are too costly to hire since they demand a balanced diet and huge “ugali” on top of the inheritance fee before engaging in ritual sex even with the corpse before burial.

“This has been a major set back to our endeavors since many widows are opting to pay for the services for the fear of being neglected by their in-laws and to avoid the “ghosts of the deceased” from invading the home,” says he.

The priests speaks for thousands of Luo widows suffering their agony in silence who must comply with the dictates of society and must be inherited.

The widows on the other hand revealed that they normally lure “border –border cyclists “ or ‘japer’ from a neighboring community who prefer cash, heads of cattle or decent diet and alcohol before they proceed with the ritual sex the entire night. They are then seen as the inheritors of the deceased‘s wealth. The practice has attracted many strangers from a neighboring community in Siaya District who are paid affront for the “historic game.”

One noted inheritor, name withheld said “when widows fall in love with me for ritual sex it means I have to admit a death sentence in form of illicit sex in exchange for wealth”

He further said the practice is very dangerous but lucrative and a way must be found to tame relatives who intimidate widows in forced sex with strangers “japer” just to inherit them

Some of the widows demanded that doctors be mandated to publicly declare the cause of their patients death inorder to alert the would be inheritors.

The would be inheritor is chosen by the deceased’s relatives during the funeral ceremony which last weeks as people feast and dance while others mourn..

Tired of the practice, the affected widows formed the Association through the church parishes, whose membership covers the entire Nana province. The group crusades against cultural practices in Luo community that spread HIV/Aids.

During their annual convention held at Yala Catholic Parish in August last year, the well over a thousand widows addressed the issue of wife inheritance and the debate went on unabated in the presence of stakeholders.

They unanimously layed forth the need for widows to be assisted financially, socially and spiritually as some of them according to Father Oluoch are left homeless by their irate relatives who even loot their husbands properties.

“Some widows are left in a dilapidated houses vandalized during the funeral ceremony and for the widows to build a new house, she must enter in with an axe and a cock plus a new “husband” normally on hire or the would be inheritor” .

The inheritor symbolically acts as a husband when during ground breaking ceremony of the new house and must have sex with her that night.

St.Monica group aims at empowering such widows and to help them start income generating activities.

The Group advocates for total abstinence by widows as experts on HIV/Aids believe it is among the last barriers to reversing the spread of Aids disease.

Nevertheless, clan elders feel the society has mistaken the Luos terming them as immoral and primitive. The reason for the practice they insist is to ensure the widow is taken care of even after the death if her spouse

They say there is a fine distinction between desire and disorders which “Jater” and the widow must observe including rape prevention. Luo widows who are past menopause age also go for ritual sex to cleanse their family leading to sexual abuse.

Two Assistant Ministers and a Member of Parliament issued a one week ultimatum to the Government to discontinue the ongoing security operations to mop up illegal firearms among the pastoral communities in the North Rift region.

Ekwe Ethuro (Assistant Minister of Planning) and Samuel Moroto (Home Affairs) and Samburu West MP Simeon Lesirma charged yesterday that the exercise had proved punitive to their communities.

Talking to the press in Eldoret, the three MPs said over 30,000 herders had abandoned their homes and fled to Uganda for fear of being subjected to harsh treatment by the security forces carrying out the disarmament exercise.

“The operation by the security forces had lost its meaning. It has instead promoted under-development in the districts where it is being carried out such as Turkana, Pokot and Samburu,” said Moroto.

On his part, Lesirma said since the disarmament exercise began in March, five schools have closed in his constituency as children fled with their parents to Uganda as security forces use crude methods in search of illegal firearms and intimidate innocent people.

Moroto told Internal Security Minister, John Michuki that the disarmament exercise had outlived its objective and wants it to be put off.

Lesirma said development projects that were supposed to be initiated by the military personnel alongside the security operations had not been put in place and had made a mockery of the operations.

Ethuro asked: “Why are the Kenyan pastoralists living along the international borders being disarmed yet communities in the neighbouring countries are not? He said pastoral communities in the neighbouring countries had breached territorial integrity by crossing into the country to engage in cattle rustling activities.

Meanwhile, the Kenyan Government has handed over the 100 herds of cattle stolen from Uganda.The gesture came after a thorough search by security personnel in West Pokot and Trans-Nzoia districts. A combination of military officers, provincial administration and regular police were involved in the search.

West Pokot District Commisioner Stephen Ikua said the animals had been handed over to their Uganda counterparts in an effort to streamline the relations between the communities living along the borders. The animals were reportedly stolen by raiders believed to be from Wet Pokot District.

A Catholic Justice and Peace Commision-Kapenguria Chapter official praised the Government for the move adding that the return of the animals was a very big initiative by the Kenyan authorities in bringing peace.

An Assistant Minister has accused the General Service Unit (GSU) personnel of harassing Pokot herders in the guise of pursuing cattle rustlers.

Home Affairs assistant minister Samuel Moroto claimed yesterday that GSU personnel at Chepchoina camp in West Pokot district are targeting innocent Pokot herdsmen and allowing cattle rustlers to escape, thereby creating tension in the area. The government has ordered disarmament of pastoralists in the district.

Speaking to reporters at Sirikwa Hotel in Eldoret, the Kapenguria MP claimed the GSU rounded up cattle from his Pokot people at Kanyarwat in West Pokot alleging they had been stolen from Trans Nzoia district.

“The security personnel, instead of tracking down cattle rustlers who stole animals in the neighbouring district are taking away animals from innocent residents,” he said and called for the punishment of officers if they do not return the confiscated animals.

“Michuki should reshuffle these people. It seems they do not know why they are in the area. Instead of restoring law and order they are fuelling animosity by mistreating the local people,” he stressed.

He said he had received many complaints of torture from his constituents on the conduct of the security men and asked the officers to leave the area.

Moroto claimed tension has risen in the district as a result of the GSU’s presence, confiscation of cattle and treatment of his people.

Meanwhile the Rift Valley Deputy Provincial Commissioner, Solomon Ouko yesterday said security committees in the North Rift region will be strengthened to curb insecurity in the area.

Ouko said MPs from the region, non governmental organizations (NGOs) officials and elders will be co-opted into the committees to tackle insecurity induced by cattle rustling.

Speaking during the official closure of a meeting attended by all District Commissioners from the area, Ouko said security will be beefed up along the borders with Uganda, Ethiopia and Sudan to curb the influx of illegal firearms into Kenya.

“We cannot keep on talking on how to solve the problem of insecurity without addressing the issue of proliferation of illegal fire arms from the neighbouring countries facing internal wars,” he noted.

As the Malaria epidemic continue to spread virulently in Africa leaving in its wake a frightening toll of casualties; human, economic and social, the call to rise up and fight the disease with renewed vigor has never resonated more powerfully of late.

Malaria so far is the leading killer disease globally surpassing other dreaded epidemics like HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis etc. Sub-Saharan Africa currently takes the lion’s share of deaths associated with Malaria.

Out of the three million people who succumb to Malaria annually, ninety percent are from Africa.

The intensity of Malaria epidemic has lately provoked the conscience of policy makers in higher echelons of Government, non Governmental organizations, Bilateral and multi-lateral agencies who have all teamed up to establish a co-ordinate approach to fight the disease.

The roll back Malaria (RBM) global partnership that was launched in 1998 to provide a coordinated international approach to fight the disease has the blessing of almost all Malaria endemic African Countries. The primary goal of Roll back Malaria is to halve the burden of malaria by the year 2010.

A number of targets for specific intervention strategies were established at the Abuja Malaria summit in April 2000 and were endorsed by the high-powered delegations in attendance. The targets include among others, prompt access to effective treatment, provision of insecticide treated nets to reach sixty percent of those at risk from malaria; children under five years and pregnant mothers.

Malaria is the root cause of the debilitating poverty afflicting many African countries. In Tanzania alone, the disease kills a staggering 100,000 people every year. Nearly thirty million people in Tanzania are at risk of the disease; a situation that create heavy burden on families and the Country’s health system. Malaria consumes 3.5 percent or US $ 350 Million of the Country’s gross domestic product each year.

Malaria continues to blight struggling economies in Africa where 60 percent of the population live below the poverty line. Struggling economies in Africa are being overwhelmed by challenges posed by Malaria epidemic. The shoestring budgetary allocation to the health sector by most African Governments has often stood in the way of taming the malaria devastations in our countries.

Malaria is also reversing backwards any gains African countries might have achieved towards sustainable development. The millennium development goals (MDGS) appears ever more like a distant mirage as the populations which could have been the catalyst to enable their countries attain the millennium targets, die in large numbers from preventable causes like malaria.

Despite the gloomy scenario though, the fight against malaria is accelerating on a steady course in many African countries. Tanzania for instance has stood out as a shining example of a country that has risen up to the challenge of battling the tropical epidemic which is responsible for about 40 percent of fewer than five deaths in the country.

Malaria also impacts heavily on pregnant women leading to an upsurge of Anemia and fetal weight loss.

The Government of Tanzania has set up fantastic programmes for malaria prevention and treatment. These programmes and initiatives have been developed through engagement with all concerned parties and the successes recorded on the ground are so impressive.

Recently, a UK based non governmental organization that is heavily involved in malaria war in Africa, organized a trip for both African and foreign Journalists to Tanzania to expose them to the various programmes and projects that are fully vibrant as the country grapples with the magnitude of malaria epidemic. The site visits to the many Malaria projects that are fully operational in Tanzania were an eye opener for us and underscores the determination of one African country that does not want to be left behind in the fight against malaria. We embarked on extensive tours to the Malaria research projects and visited the Malaria endemic commu-nities in Malaria hotspots of Southern Tanzania to get first hand account of how these communities are grappling with the epidemic.

The Tanzanian ministry of health in collaboration with partners in research, donor community and the grassroots communities has developed innovative programmes to scale up an effective means of fighting malaria. A number of projects like the provision of insecticide treated nets (ITNS) to vulnerable groups of Children and pregnant women have achieved phenomenal results. In October 2004,Tanzanian Government began to scale up an innovative programme that uses discount vouchers to provide pregnant women and infant’s access to insecticide treated nets at reduced prices.The Tanzania National Voucher Scheme (TNVS) is a unique and innovative model that provides targeted subsidies to those who are vulnerable to malaria. The Voucher scheme is a collaborative venture involving various players like Government, private sector, Donors and community groups.

Through Voucher scheme, pregnant women who visit antenatal care at health facilities are issued with a voucher that they present to any recommended retailer and are given the net at reasonable cost. Gover-nment and donors have developed social marketing strategy and the private sector is involved in the supply of the treated nets to reach a wide berth of population of vulnerable groups in an economically viable manner.

There are so many retail outlets in malaria endemic regions of Tanzania that are actively involved in supplying treated nets to every household with either infants or a pregnant mother at a partly price of two dollars.

The Global fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria has availed a grant of US $ 11.6 to the Tanzania Ministry of Health to enable the ministry avail low cost insecticide treated nets to households through the discount voucher scheme. With support from UNICEF, a pilot project was tested in two malaria endemic Districts of Kibaha and Kilosa to ascertain the effectiveness of the voucher scheme. The two projects bore impressive results that provoked the Government to expand discount voucher scheme to cover wider geographical location.

Mtwara province in southern Tanzania is a malaria hotspot that is home to 1.2 million people. The province is a behemoth covering 16,000 square km and has a sizeable coastline.

The extensive marsh-lands provide a fertile ground for mosquito breeding hence high incidences of Malaria infections that are recorded in the region especially during the December to January Rainfall seoson.

FAILURE to address global economic imbalances has derailed efforts by developing countries to scale new growth heights and improve standards of living, the World Social Forum (WSF) officials have warned.

The officials cited injustice and inequality as two major stumbling blocks towards the attainment of the above goals.

These, the officials lamented, will in the long run outwit growing economies in their quest for growth and better livelihood for the people.

Speaking in Nairobi yesterday during a media briefing ahead of the 2007 World Social Forum, members of the organizing committee said the forthcoming forum will provide opportunity to the world to deliberate on policies that are injurious to global growth.

The forum will, at the same time, will deliberate on how to attain equity in growth and human resource development.

Committee member Tawfiq Abdalla said this year’s Forum would be the climax of a series of attempts to fight, through negotiations, for a new world cognizant of economic needs and people’s cultural diversities.

“Participants will also take the opportunity to build on propositions of what kind of world they would like to live in and how possible it can be to attain the desired world,” he noted.

He noted that the effects of poverty in developing economies were dramatic and that WSF would be an opportune event for Africa in particular, to amplify its struggle for economic and social growth.

Oduor Ong’wen, a member of the organizing committee of the International Council of the WSF, said ignorance, armed struggles and diseases had altogether reduced the world’s competitive advantage for growth.

He announced that preparations had begun in earnest for the Forum, which begins on Saturday, January 20, in Nairobi.

The event will begin with a peace procession from Kibera slums to Uhuru Park for official opening before the issuance of solidarity statements from all regions.

Ong’wen said the Forum’s programme included a series of self-organised activities, African night, proposals and campaigns and another procession from Korogocho to Uhuru Park.

According to the organisers, between 80,000 and 150,000 participants from around the globe are expected in Nairobi for the five-day gathering that runs through January 25.

The International Council of the World Social Forum said all the logistical preparations including transportation, accommodation and security provisions had been finalised.

This is the first time in the Forum’s 7-year history for it to be held in Africa. It has traditionally been held in Brazil and once in India.

Key international figures among them retired Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda, former United Nations boss Dr Salim Ahmed Salim, South African retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu, six ministers from Brazil and the Liberian minister for Labour Kofi Wood, will address the forum.

There will also be performances by Africa’s renowned artists including Oliver Mtukudzi, Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Eric Wainaina, among others.

Ong’wen said Kenya was well-prepared to cope with the demands of hosting a forum of such magnitude in spite of some infrastructural challenges posed by the country’s “not too good” transport system.

In terms of accommodation, Ong’wen said, all hotels, motels and institutions have been identified and campsites at Jamhuri grounds and Moi Sports Centre, Kasarani expected to accommodate an estimated 5,000 and 1,000 of the participants respectively have been put up.

A solidarity accommodation arrangement whereby 35,000 Kenyan families are to host a given number of participants has also been put up in place.

There will be 13 co-organised activities which are organised and managed by the organizing committee and the African Social Forum Council.

Among the topics to feature prominently at the Forum will include – just trade, common goods for common life, dignified work, demystifying and defeating HIV and AIDS pandemic and discussions on a free debt world, highlighting debt cancellation and repudiation.

Prof Edward Oyugi, another member of the International Council of WSF said the forum would provide an opportunity for slum dwellers and marginalised communities to engage policy makers in discussion on issues affecting them, adding that Government participants would only take part as observers.

Other activities at the forum will include seminars, workshops, conference testimonies, plays skits and a marathon organised by slum dwellers on the closing day, to be graced by Kenya’s marathon greats Paul Tergat and Catherine Ndereba.

According to the organisers, the Forum will be an opportunity to showcase Africa and her social movements, Africa and her unbroken history of struggle against foreign domination and colonialism and neo-colonialism.

It will also spotlight on Africa and her rich heritage of natural wealth, cultural, linguistic and ethnic diversity; Africa and her reputation for embracing communities from around the world; Africa and her contributions to world civilization; Africa and her role in the quest for another possible, more progressive global human society.

The theme for the forum is “People’s Struggles, People’s Alternatives”.

Hotels in Nairobi and its environs have reported full bookings as a result of the event. Neighbouring districts such as Kiambu and Athi River have also benefited from the event.

PREPARATIONS for the 7th edition of the World Social Forum (WSF) are at an advanced stage as the world converges in Nairobi in a week’s time to deliberate on issues that have hampered social quality of life.

Organisers of the meeting dismissed reports that, the meeting is being spearheaded by the opposition chiefs including Prof. Anyang’ Nyong’o, Raila Odinga among others in the ODM-Kenya party.

The communications department at the secretariat dismissed the reports as speculation explaining that, the forum’s service charter is clear that, attendance of the meeting is opposed to any political representation.

All the delegates who will attend the forum may they be politicians or church leaders will not be allowed to present political sentiments.

During this event which comes into Africa for the first time at a time when Kenya is basking under a stream of accolades as having the best conferencing facilities in the globe, brings together more than 100,000 delegates, activists, social movements, networks, coalitions and other progressive forces from Asia-Pacific, Latin America, the Caribbean, North America, Europe and all corners of the African continent for cultural resistance and celebration; panels, workshops, symposia, processions, film nights among other issues.

0osted three high profile international meetings held at the United Nations-Africa Headquarters in Nairobi, to discuss issues affecting the poor and war-ravaged countries of Africa with quite a large attendance running into thousands.

The delegates will seek to demonstrate that, the path to sustainable development and social economic justice is opposed to neo-liberal globalization and a world dominated by capital and any form of imperialism.

A spot check by Kenya Times, reveals that under the principles of the WSF, the forum will create space for solidarity as it seeks to strengthen and create a new national and international links among organizations, and movements of society.

Kenya Times was informed that, the opening ceremony, will take place at the Uhuru Park grounds on January 20 to usher in the event. Already 50,000 organisations have confirmed attendance.

Earlier expectations that former South Africa President and freedom fighter, Nelson Madiba Mandela was to grace the occasion were dashed as reports from his official residnce indicated that, the aging Pan Africanist leader would not after all attend.

From its modest origins in Porto Alegre in the year 2001, the World Social Forum has mushroomed into a global counter-force challenging the assumptions and diktats of imperialism and its associated neo-liberal policies that have over the decades, imposed colonialism and neo-colonialism; devastated Southern economies; bolstered the disastrous and repressive reigns of assorted tin pot dictatorships; marginalized women; disenfranchised youth; intensified the destruction of the environment; unleashed bloody, inhuman and needless military conflicts in nation after nation, region after region and deepened the exploitation of poor peoples around the world.

Rallying around the clarion call of Another World Is Possible, the World Social Forum has placed social justice, international solidarity, gender equality, peace and defence of the environment on the agenda of the world’s peoples. From Porto Alegre to Mumbai to Bamako to Caracas, Karachi and now Nairobi, the forces and the contingents of the World Social Forum have collectively expanded the democratic spaces of those seeking concrete, sustainable and progressive alternatives to imperialist globalization.

The forum will be held at the Moi International Sports Centre- Kasarani between January 20 and 25.

For many African governments, moves towards embracing e-governance have gone little beyond the opening of websites for state ministries and departments.

But even where such websites exist, in many cases they contain little information of value to the public, and they do not in any fundamental way connect governments and citizens, as e-government aims to do. While information on the “who is who” in the ministry, its organisational structure and mission will often be abundantly available (though not necessarily updated), the average website will not have public service information, for instance on how to go about applying for a particular service, who the right office/ person to approach is, and where on the website to download and even electronically submit these application forms.

But e-governance entails more than a government website on the Internet – even if that website has a great deal of public service information, offers a great deal of interactivity and enables citizens to get a range of services electronically. As Queen’s University Belfast law lecturer Dr Subhajit Basu has said:

“The strategic objective of e-governance is to support and simplify governance for all parties: Government, citizens and businesses. The use of ICT can connect all these parties and support processes and activities. In other words, in e-governance electronic means support and stimulate good governance.”

One scholar has defined e-governance simply as the use by government agencies of information technologies such as Wide Area Networks, the Internet and mobile computing, that have the ability to transform relations with citizens, businesses and other forms of government.

Inherent in this definition are three critical issues for e-governance to work effectively: a range of information technologies have to be applied, government’s attitude towards service provision has to change, and there must be a high level of transparency in government operations.

The often-cited possible benefits e-governance can bring to developing countries include faster access to government services, lower costs for administrative services, greater public access to budgets and documents, and a corresponding increase in transparency and accountability of government functions. For e-governance to work in Africa, governments should be willing to decentralize responsibilities and processes, and to start using electronic means of communicating and delivering services.

Citizens could then contact their leaders and public servants through website where all forms, legislation, news and other information is made available. Basu says in effect, governments would serve their citizens better and save costs by making internal operations more efficient, cutting down the complex and over-stretched bureaucratic system.

But this is only the ideal situation. The reality in many African countries makes e-governance unattainable in the immediate term, and the main reasons have little to do with the lack of money to fund the roll-out of e-government programmes, or the need to fund other pressing priorities like providing access to safe drinking water or funding universal primary education.

E-governance breaks bureaucracy and that is not desirable to many government workers. To many of them, bureaucracy means power and is also a source of side income for them. A person applying for a trading license may have to pay the person who dishes out the application forms, bribe the clerk to have their application stamped, and pay a string of other people just to get the application considered, let alone granted. This is an eating chain that e-governance would minimize. And the e-illiterate public servants seem best placed to recognise this.

Another issue is that just about two percent of the populations of various African countries access the Internet. Hence, whatever initiatives government departments may make in introducing the use of IT in their work, they will not go far if the issue of accessibility and affordability to the Internet for the average person are not addressed.

Additionally, many African governments have a culture of keeping even the most innocent information in ‘confidential’ folders, and only the permanent secretary of a ministry or other administrative head of a department can authorize the release of any such information. This culture goes counter to the logic of e-governance, which is to increase transparency in governance, including giving the public access to a wider range of government records. What this means is that where public officials or administrative systems benefit from poor governance and the lack of transparency, they will be reluctant to open up their budgets and other records to the public.

Accordingly, e-government experts like Basu say in order to examine the risk of implementing e-governance solutions, the following factors have to be taken into account: whether a country is a democracy or a dictatorial regime; the government structure – whether it is centralised or decentralised, the adequacy of the legal framework, an the level of trust in government. For most African governments, the scale seems to be strongly tilted against e-governance.

The British High Commission would be represented by Mark Norton , UK Drug Liason Officer Mark Harding , Kit Townsend, UK Liason officer from the Customs and Excise Gordon Adam and William Folkard of UK forensics science services.

The United States team comprises Michael Fitzpatirck Jeff Culver (regional security law enforcement officer), Jeniffer Barnes (information officer), John Burton (Federal Bureau of Investigations), and a representative from US Department of Justice.

The team leader, Mrs Okado shall at all times, personally supervise, direct and coordinate the activities of the verification and inspection of the consignment. She will be answerable to the AG through the DPP.

The inspection, verification, which includes weighing and sampling of the consignment shall be conducted at the GSU Training School, Embakasi.

According to Mr Wako, the physical verification of the cocaine haul will include the number of packages, a description of the packages, appearances of packages including signs of pilferage and photographing of the packages.

The results of the initial verification done by the Government Chemist when the drug was seized and that of the international experts would be compared.

Wako says the main purpose of testing the seizures is to confirm that the haul is still as intact as it was at the time of the recovery. Testing for the type of the drug will include both a preliminary test and a confirmatory test.

On the procedures to be used in sampling, Wako said the consignment shall be considered as three separate population:

Those packages tested by the Government Chemist in December 2004 (42 packages totalling 26 from Malindi and 16 from Nairobi);

The exact sampling and testing methods will be decided by the representatives of the Chief Government Chemist in consultation with the international experts based, among other things, on the results of the verification process, staff technical capabilities and physical and equipment infrastructure available,” said Wako.

The AG said at least 21 one-gram samples shall be sent for further testing and research laboratory in the United States.

The destruction process using incinerator shall require a minimum of eight hours, said Wako. The destruction process, he said, shall take place in the presence of the magistrate, prosecution, the accused, the defence counsel, invited media representatives and invited dignitaries.

“It shall be conducted in an open, transparent and public manner,” said Wako in a statement. And the boxes containing the seized drugs shall only be opened in the presence of Mrs Okado, GSU Commandant and one representative of the international partners.

The cocaine has been in police custody at the GSU Training School since December 2004.

Police Commissioner Hussein Ali and other top security officers have on three occasions since Thursday inspected the Kemri incinerator where the haul will be destroyed.

Sources say Kemri is better placed than Kenyatta National Hospital or the Forces Memorial Hospital to incinerate the drugs since its staff had better experience in the disposal of chemical wastes from the institution’s laboratories. It also offered better security and control over human traffic.

The cocaine destruction was initially scheduled for Friday last week, but the exercise was postponed after the foreign experts failed to make it for Nairobi on time.

Nairobi Chief Magistrate Aggrey Muchelule had ordered that the drugs be destroyed last week and in accordance with the law in addition to internationally accepted procedures.

The order to destroy the 1.1 tonnes of cocaine will finally put to rest fears that the drugs could have been tempered with.

The Magistrate’s order came a week after the state sought a court order to destroy the consignment, saying it was a strain on the country’s security personnel who have to keep guard round the clock.

The government’s application came days after British and American envoys in Nairobi met Wako and expressed concern over the drugs safety.

On Friday last week, the A-G went back to court seeking an extension of the order. He said he had invited experts from the UN, UK and the US to participate in the verification and destruction.

Seven people have been charged with trafficking the cocaine. They are Mr Angelo Ricci, Ms Estella Duminga, Mr Railton Munthungu, Mr David Mugo Kiragu, Mr Davis Gachago, Mr Stanley Wango, Mr Tansukhulal Thanki and Central Valley Supplies. They have denied committing the offense on December 14,2004.

While on a visit to the White House recently, my attention was drawn to a photograph among the myriad images that decorate the East Wing walls of this political seat of American might.

It is a photograph of President Kibaki and US President George W. Bush posing on the manicured lawns of the White House. Taken during Kibaki’s historic state visit to Washington in 2003, the image oozes the splendour and majesty of the US. But this is not what captivated my attention. That image poignantly reminded me of the shattered Kenyan dream.

I realised just how much the incompetence of this regime has cost our nation. As I turned away, my belly was seething with fury.

I am angry at how a cynical pack of wolves draped in sheepskin conned their way to power by mouthing cliches they never believed in.

When the ordinary Kenyans in Budalang’i, Kuria, Namanga, Mweiga, and Wajir and beyond sang “Yote yawezekana”, they were genuine. They believed in the dream of a second liberation – a new dawn. The dawn of a new Kenya in which national interest reigned over tribal allegiance, merit over cronyism. Where openness and accountability were not just empty rhetoric akin to what became of glasnost and perestroika amidst the collapse of the Soviet bloc.

The Yote yawezekana spirit never envisaged replacing a gang of robbers with a band of pirates, or reincarnation of tribalism, or rebirth of sycophancy, or institutionalisation of incompetence, or shameless assault on democracy, or opulent lifestyles for a few amidst a sea of wretchedness.

I am angry at our soiled international image. A nation ranked the most optimistic in the world only three years ago is today just another African false glimmer of hope.

The Economist now classifies Kenya alongside the likes of Liberia, way behind Botswana, South Africa, Namibia and Mauritius, the beacons of hope on the continent. Kibaki standing shoulder to shoulder with Bush symbolised the re-admission of Kenya into the international community of respectable nations.

When development partners rushed to oil Kenya’s renaissance, it was a gesture of well-meaning friends weary of African failure. Kenya was touted as an African success story in political transition and coalition democracy.

When in April 2003 I visited the European Union Parliament to argue Kenya’s case for debt relief, I was overwhelmed by the goodwill our land enjoyed. In a meeting with then Dutch representative and vice-chairman of the development and cooperation committee, Marx van den Berg, he lavishly praised Kenya, and said a team he was leading to monitor the Nigerian elections that year would urge emulation of Kenyans.

This goodwill has since dissipated like dew receding fast in the early morning African sunshine.

When last Wednesday I addressed the Capital Hill Rotary Club here in Washington DC, I was stung by the view of Kenya that now pervades Western capitals: a banana republic toying with collapse.

The Western media are having a love fest! Washington Post, New York Times, the Economist, BBC … have splashed acres of space on our woes. Our image out here is in tatters. What galls even more is the cavalier attitude of those responsible for this debacle. It is laughable to hear ministers in this ill-fated regime argue that if the West doesn’t play ball, we will simply turn east. What a pile of twaddle!

The world is now enmeshed in a neat global political-economic web. What happens in Nairobi matters as much in Seoul, Tokyo and Beijing as it does in London, Brussels and Washington. Why would Tokyo waste taxes of Japanese citizens to turn corrupt ministers into overnight billionaires enjoying car models that even the Japanese Premier does not drive? And, dummy, the problem is not in the West.

It is in Nairobi! The problem is Mwai Kibaki who is stuck in inertia, who has taken tribalism to new heights by turning the seat of power for a nation of 42 communities into the exclusive fiefdom of his homeboys, who thinks Kenyans are such nincompoops – you throw the Goldenberg bone and they stop barking at Anglo Leasing, who believes Kenyans eat the hot-air of imaginary economic growth rates, who chairs a Cabinet meeting not to respond to public expectations but to hoodwink the nation.

The problem is the entire leadership steering this incompetent and larcenous regime that has reversed the promise of a bright new dawn into the disillusionment of a misty dusk.

This piece first appeared in Kenya Times and was penned by Ababu Namwamba.

Six thousand people. Five clinics. Two primary schools. Two churches. An endless string of clubs.

Two supermarkets. Five storyed buildings. A booming construction industry.

Four petrol stations, one casino with live entertainment, a cyber café, photocopying centres.

No slums. No beggars. No street children. No banks.

Mlolongo.

As recently as 1984, this bustling trading centre in Mavoko Municipality was a mere expanse of African bush on a narrow strip of land approximately 50 by 1,000 metres between the old and the new alignment of the Mombasa road, some 15 km from Nairobi city.

In the mid 1980s, crafty sand traders from Machakos district, some 30 km further east, found that by dumping their lorry loads along the old alignment of the Mombasa road, not more than 50m from the new one, they avoided the weighbridge charges.

Smaller lorries coming from Nairobi did not have to pay. The avoidance was therefore fully legal, taking place under the very eyes of the police. As a matter of fact, the trade continues: heaps of sand still wait for buyers next to the northern expanse of the savannah.

Two attempts were made over the years to block the old road so as to prevent lorries from using it. The first was a bulldozer digging an ephemeral ditch across it. The second was the police erecting a low-lying barrier high enough to let a car through, but low enough to keep a lorry off. This was effective for the couple of weeks it took the lorries to open a detour around it.

Soon after the sand trade begun, the first shops started appearing. They mostly sold food and drink, but in no time other services were provided for: tailors, clinics, a locksmith, shoemakers. It did not take long before wooden shacks gave way to stone and cement buildings. By 1990, Mlolongo was booming, while officially continuing not to exist.

Even today, it is useless to try to locate Mlolongo on a map. An interesting phenomenon is that neither politicians nor street preachers, not even NGOs, find a ready audience in a fully employed population. And the inhabitants do not look forward to having such operators in their midst.

Why?

Henry George (1839-97) used to say, capitalist A and worker B do not divide between themselves the wealth produced by B. They divide what is left to them after landowner C rakes in his rent, usurer D his interest, tax collector E his extortions, and a whole line of parasites from F to Z their more or less visible cuts.

It is evident that the Mlolongo dwellers avoid, or evade, some of that. Not all, for sure, otherwise the place would not differ much from an earthly paradise. A tentative, necessarily incomplete, analysis follows.

What strikes a visitor first is the difference between the north side of the new Mombasa road where Mlolongo lies, and the south, which spots a few buildings and a vast expanse of undeveloped savannah. The difference is land speculation.

Land is not free on either side of the road, but the system of tenure is leasehold in the North and freehold in the South. Result: the lease price paid to the Mavoko Municipality would be wasted by anyone not developing the land paid for.

Hence the booming construction.On the south side, the landowner sits on his daily appreciating but empty property, unwilling to sell and waiting to make a kill.

The perverse system of taxation that Kenya has inherited from the British rewards the idle landowner’s sloth, while punishing the working people’s industry. The perversion consists in the fact that the value of the idle property increases by the day not because of what its owner does, but because of what the people on the other side of the road do.

If the attention of tax collector E was diverted away from the fruits of Mlolongo people’s labour towards the immoral (but legal) earnings of that representative of class C, Mlolongo would take off economically way beyond the dreams of every academic economist.

Mlolongo is far from being self-sufficient. It grows no food and produces no goods in any quantity to speak of. There is plenty of work, which keeps everyone busy, but few stable “jobs.” Its main asset is, without doubt, its strategic location.

Whereas the distance from Nairobi City centre is some 15 kilometres, that from its outlying industrial area east of the city is no more than 5-8 km, a long but not exhausting walk in the cool of the mornings and evenings.

The same distance separates it from Athi River and Kitengela on the opposite site. The employees of the two big cement factories located there find cheaper accommodation in Mlolongo than in either Athi River or Nairobi.

The weigh bridge station, where all the lorries coming from Mombasa must stop to weigh in and pay accordingly, is a net asset for Mlolongo. The clientèle from the stopping lorries adds not only to its colour but also to its income, making it possible, just, to avoid the usurer’s grasp.

The absence, or inconspicuousness, of so many eaters of labourers’ wages goes a long way to explain the unusual prosperity of Mlolongo, but it does not mean that people there wallow in opulence.

There is no poverty in the sense of destitution, but wages are low. The population is big enough to have attracted there the power company. It has connected the place to the national grid, but since the water supply is a municipal monopoly, they are still without water. Every family needs 40 litres a day, which they buy from vendors at 2 shillings a litre.

And there is no sewerage system. Every shop-cum dwelling space owner has built his own septic tank under the property, but in the outlying areas north of the road, there are still open sewers waiting to be dealt with. Somehow.

SPORTS minister Maina Kamanda has underscored the need of upholding her­itage to honour and recognise sportsmen and women who have brought pride to the country.

Kamanda said the gov­ernment felt privileged to re­mu­nerate sports people who have ex­celled hence the decision of a deliberate policy on a re­mu­neration scheme that has re­sulted into usage of more than Sh 40 million to reward medal winning athletes.

The good news came while Min­is­ter of State for National Heritage Suleiman Shakombo, who also graced the occasion, said the gov­ernment had set aside Sh58 million for con­struction of a museum in Nandi dis­trict in hon­our of legendary Nandi freedom fighter Koitalel Arap Samoei.

Kamanda called on the sports asso­ciations to embrace her­itage while offi­cially opening the Sh6 million worth Athletics Kenya (AK) mu­seum at Riadha House in Nairobi.

The minister hailed AK for the no­ble project and called on the other asso­ciations to follow suit for the sake of appreciating the efforts of our sportsmen who have brought fame to the coun­try in­ter­na­tionally.

He pledged government support to whichever asso­ciation ventured into such a noble course, saying it was an in­spi­ration to aspiring youth who would wish to take part in sports in future.

Kamanda commended AK for it’s vision and sound policies in financial management, adding that the gov­ernment was glad of it’s achievement of being the only association in the coun­try to moot and eventually implement the idea of constructing a museum.

AK chairman Isaiah Kiplagat said the museum is open to the public who will pay a certain fee to watch the ar­te­facts of some of Ken­ya’s greatest ath­letes since the association was mooted in early 50’s.

He hinted that plans are afoot to have walls and the surrounding areas of Riadha House be draped in statutes of some of the athletes who have brought fame and pride tom the country.

Reports about the massive destruction of acacia trees which form part of forest land in Naivasha area by unknown charcoal burners is chilling. More tragic is that this is hardly an isolated case.

Over the years environmentalists have warned over forest destruction and degradation of the earth’s cover.

But little, if any, has been done, to bring to book the culprits, especially illegal loggers and indiscriminate charcoal burners. We feel that members of the provincial administration right from the assistant chiefs who are the closest to the people must get more involved in safeguarding the environment as a part of their core duties.

The alarm bells over the depletion of forest cover must start to find resonance more widely otherwise we are doomed. And this can not be a job left to Greenbelt Movement founder and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Prof Wangari Maathai to crusade.

Kenyans are fast and furiously eating away into the forest cover way beyond what is recommended for sustainable ecological balance. It hardly requires a rocket scientist to put across the point that a tree felled within minutes for charcoal and sold for as little as Sh200 takes years and years to replace.

Indeed it is mockery that every April sees a “national enthusiasm” for tree planting in this country organised by environmentalists and the Ministry of Environment and millions of tree seedlings have been planted in recent years during such occasions. The message that we must nurture mother nature for it to reciprocate has never sank in.

Charcoal burning and illegal logging are the leading culprits. Inexplicably, the mayhem and wanton destructive go on under the very noses of those charged to preserve forests.

At best some people are sleeping on the job and at worst are complicit to the destruction of Kenya’s environmental heritage. Evidence point to the fact that some of the forest guards are actually active participants in the abetting of illegal activities.

The medium to long term consequence of forests destruction has been radically changing rain patterns as water catchment areas have suffered intense pressure.

But perhaps we have not been acting smart in our one -size- fits -all approach to re-afforestation endeavours.

Different trees need different soil types, weather and take varied time to adjust to the natural environment.

This is particularly true of the mushrooming roadside tree nurseries and the fact that once the trees are planted, little care is taken to nurture them. Perhaps it is time we took another look at the tree planting exercise to evaluate its overall efficacy in increasing forest cover.

But there is also the poverty factor which must be addressed. Part of the reason trees are being felled indiscriminately and on large scale is because our people are so poor and so desperateto sell charcoal. But this certainly precludes loggers.

As the world’s Christian communities celebrate the Easter season, a small group of Kenyan Hebrew converts in Laikipia District marked the season like the ancient Passover festival of the Jewish exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land, writes JOSEPH KABIA.

This is the message of the Passover Haggadah, a prayer inscribed in the hearts of the Jews. It is the miraculous story of the going out of Egypt, that I gathered in a recent visit to Laikipia, as told by a group of African converts to the Jewish religion.

“Slaves we were to Pharaoh in Egypt but the Lord our God brought us out of there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. And if the Holy one, blessed is He, had not brought our fathers out from Egypt, then we and our children would still be slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt.

It is the duty of the Jewish believers, they say, to tell the story of Exodus since, “the more one dwells on the story of the going out of Egypt, the more praise one deserves.”

They tell a tale of Rabbi Eliezer, and Rabbi Yehoshua, and Rabbi Elazar son of Azarya, and Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Tarfon, who were reclining at the seder service in Bene Brak, in Israel and had spent the whole night long telling the story of the going out of Egypt, until their pupils came and said to them: “Our masters, it is time to recite the morning Shema!- prayer.”

They invoke the name of the Jewish high priest Rabban Gamliel, who used to remind his students to always pronounce the three important words of Pesah, Mazza, Maror, during the feast of the Passover.

Pesah is a Hebrew word meaning that God passed over the houses of their forefathers in Egypt as it is said in the scriptures: “And you shall say it is in Pesah sacrifice for the Lord, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when he smote Egypt, and saved our houses. And the people bowed down and worshipped.”

Mazza is the dough prepared in Egypt and that never managed to ferment before “the supreme King of Kings revealed Himself to them, the Holy One, blessed is He, and redeemed, as it is said in the scriptures, “and they baked the dough which they brought out from Egypt, into unleavened cakes, because it was not fermented: because they were driven out of Egypt, and they could not delay, nor had they prepared for themselves any provision.”

The Maror are bitter herbs eaten during the Passover to remind the Jews of how the Egyptians embittered the lives of their forefathers: “And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of bondage in the field: All their bondage wherein they made them serve with rigor,” the black Jewish community recites.

The small group of about five thousand black Hebrew believers in Kenya, takes to the hymns of Israel-that echoes across the plains of Laikipia, to the cradle of their faith in Jerusalem.

Since early 1960’s, a small group of Kenyan men, women and children has been travelling a spiritual journey, first travelled physically by the children of Israel from their bondage in Egypt to the Promised Land.

Tucked in the bleak corners of the timeless plains of Laikipia, a Hebrew culture has been growing like the biblical mustard seed.

According to the community elder, Rabbi Stephen Mbatia, the current population of the black Hebrew believers stands at 5,000 people.

“My father tried to establish a closer relationship between his mission here in Jerusalem and the Kenyan community but the roots of their faith in the Hebrew culture was never documented,” says Mrs Naomi Fauth, an elderly woman living in Jerusalem.

I meet the elderly lady nursing a wounded raven that had been trapped between the thorny bushes of a Mexican tree that stands in their yard in Bakar, off Bethlehem Road in Jerusalem.

The winter season had just set in and the temperatures were drifting towards zero. The snow flakes were falling like a million white kites. The elderly lady broke the silence and cut in: “ It does not always snow like this in Jerusalem. This year is quite an exemption.”

As the elderly lady casts her glance across the old city of Jerusalem and the shimmering Doom of the Rock, she narrates about the “gift of faith” bestowed to the nations through the love of God.

“It was during the creation of the earth that God rested on the seventh day that gave the Sabbath and it’s importance to everyone that professes the Jewish faith,” she narrates as she quotes the Bible.

“And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it because that in it He had rested from all his work.”

It is from these biblical inspirations that the Laikipia based Hebrew community observes the Sabbath day in their respective prayer houses within their locality, praising God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob with songs and scriptures.

Their houses of prayer are adorned with the biblical evidence that characterize the Hebrew culture and traditions.

On the walls are the symbols of the Hannuka- a unique Jewish tradition that dates back as far as 164 BCE and Magen David-the star of David.

The elders explain the roots of the Hannuka tradition.

“It was then, 164 BCE, that Judah Maccabee, one of the five sons of Priest Mattathias, led the Judean revolt against the Hellenists selucid ruler of Antiochus, who defiled the holy temple in Jerusalem and turned it into a pagan temple.”

To the Jewish fraternity including the Kenyan community, the Hannuka commemorates both the physical victory of the small Jewish nation against mighty Greece and the spiritual victory of the Jewish faith against the Hellenism of the Greeks.

“Its sanctity derives from this spiritual aspect of the victory, and the miracle of the flask of oil, when a portion of sacramental olive oil meant to keep the temple candelabrum lit for one day lasted for eight days, the time it took the temple to be rededicated,” says community elder Rabbi Stephen Mbatia.

He quotes Prophet Isaiah in the Bible on: “The sons of strangers who will ever live among the house of Israel, to justify their Hebrew inclinations.”

“Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the Lord, speak, saying, behold, I am a dry tree. For thus saith the Lord unto the Eunuchs that keep my Sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant: even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off,” He says.

Like the black Jews of Dimona in Israel who migrated from America and West Africa to live in Israel, the hope of the Kenyan Hebrew community is to migrate and live in Israel too. “Our hope is not yet lost,” reads a banner in their house of prayer.

The community members speak of their gratitude to the Israeli Embassy in Nairobi for it’s constant remembrance to the community. “Once in a while the Embassy officials visits the community and shares the joy of Israel with us,” members say enthusiastically.

And for the last five years the Kenyan Hebrews express their warm gratitude’s to the Jewish families working in Kenya for “their kindness in sharing the story of the Passover through packets of Israeli Mazzot-unleavened bread that they offer to the community.”

And as the community shares the unleavened bread in happiness, the elders prays for peace in Jerusalem while the children recites a song from the books of Psalms: “May there be abundance of grain in the land; on top of the mountains may it wave,” they sing.

And for better part of this week starting last Tuesday April 11, 2006, the community will converge in Laikipia to commemorate the historical journey that marked the physical liberation of the children of Israel and the spiritual redemption of the children of God.

The Boeing 737-800 that went down in Niete, Southern Cameroon yesterday with 106 passengers and eight crew members and a flight engineer on board was one of three such aircraft belonging to Kenya Airways that operates more transcontinental flights than any other African airline.

Flight 507 originated from Ivory Coast and its intended destination was Nairobi with a stopover in Cameroon to pick up additional passengers before crashing 200 kilometers from Douala.

In 2004 Kenya Airways announced the phasing out of Boeing 737-200 fleet, and replacement with New Generation Boeing 737-800. All the three 737-800s with capacity to carry 129 passengers and 16 crew were delivered from Singapore Aircraft Leasing Enterprise.

With an average fleet age of 9.8 years, Kenya Airways is among world air careers with the most modern planes and boasts of an impeccable safety record with Flight 507 being only the second major accident suffered by the airliner since Flight 431; an Airbus 310-300 crashed in Abidjan in 2001.

Before yesterday’s tragedy, only one other Boeing 737-800 belonging to Gol Transportes Aeroes of Brazil had crashed killing all 154 on board.

In an incident that occurred on September 29 last year, the ill fated aircraft was involved in a midair collision with an Embraer Legacy 600 military jet. Amazingly, the military Legacy landed safely at a Brazilian Air Force Base.

Boeing’s Next Generation 737-800 is among the largest member of the strong selling 737 family. Unlike the other Next Generation 737s, the 767-800 introduce new fuselage lengths, extending 737 single class seating range out to 189, compared with 100 in the original 737-100.

Until its launch on September 5, 1994 the 737-800 was known as the 737-400X Stretch. Compared with the 737-400, the 737-800 is 3.02m (9ft 9in) longer, taking typical two class seating from 146 to 162, while range is significantly increased.

The 737-800 has sold strongly since its launch, and early 2002 was the highest selling Next Generation Boeing model. Its maiden flight was on July 31 1997, first delivery (to Hapag Lloyd) was in April 1998.

By the end of that year, 1,028 737-800s had been ordered with 664 delivered by October 2002.

The 737 design enhancements allow operators to fly increased payload in and out of airports with runways less than 5,000 feet long.

The design enhancements include a two-position tail skid that enables reduced approach speeds, sealed leading-edge slats that provide increased lift during takeoff, and increased flight spoiler deflection on the ground that improves takeoff and landing performance.

The enhancements increase payload capability for landing up to 3,628 kilograms on the 737-800. They also increase payload capability for takeoff up to 908 kilograms on the 737-800 in relation to its predecessors.

The short-field performance changes were developed starting in 2004. The flight-test program was conducted on a new 737-800 and began when the airplane made its first flight on January 24 last year.

The Next-Generation 737s including the 800 are 10 years newer and fly higher, faster and farther than competing models. The 737 is now so widely used that at any given time, there are over 1,250 airborne worldwide. On average, one takes off or lands every five seconds.

By the end of March 2007 a total of 6,866 737s had been ordered and 5351 delivered worldwide.

THE US government has pledged Sh6.4 billion ($40 million) to the Somalia Transitional Federal Government (TFG) to go into assisting in the deployment of an African stabilisation force.

US ambassador to Kenya Michael Ranneberger said the money will also be used to revive the country’s civil society to foster peace and democracy.

Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Minister Raphael Tuju and six Cabinet colleagues have embarked on a mission to convince other African states to contribute forces to restore peace in Somalia. Ranneberger said the ministers, under the leadership of Tuju, were making headway in convincing as many countries as possible to avail their troops in the shortest time possible, with Uganda already having pledged 1500 troops.

Briefing the media yesterday at the US embassy in Nairobi, Ranneberger said US was committed to supporting the peace process in Somalia, adding that it would not relent until stability is achieved by encouraging dialogue between the warring factions.

He called on the international community to provide more funds to support the African stabilisation force and other functions of the TFG.

He defended his country against accusations that it had vested interest in Somalia in view of recent air strikes by its troops, saying US interest in Somalia was to restore peace and stability besides flushing out al Qaeda elements in the country.

He said it was evident that al Qaeda’s influence in Somalia had waned since the ouster of the Islamic Courts Union government by Ethiopian troops, adding that TFG led by President Abdullahi Yussuf still needs the support of the international community in consolidating its operations in the capital Mogadishu.

Any child’s dream as it grows up is to have an education that inculcates in it the real virtues of life. At ten years of age, every child has his or her school of choice, which he wishes to pursue in his later education.

It is worth noting that the particular school one attends shapes the life of the particular individual. American writer Maya Angelou wrote that:

“We are all creative, but by the time we are three of four years old, someone has knocked the creativity out of us. Some people shut up the kids who start to tell stories. Kids dance in their cribs, but someone will insist they sit still. By the time the creative people are ten or twelve, they want to be like everyone else.”

Education is the point at which we decide whether we love the world enough to assume responsibility for it and for the same reason to save it from that ruin.

An education, too, is where we decide whether we love our children enough not to expel them from our world and leave them to their own devices, or to strike from their hands their choice of undertaking something new, something unforeseen by us, but to prepare them for the task of renewing a common world.

In Britain, you need to either belong to the royal family or pass through, Eton College, Oxford or Cambridge Universities to be a ruler or a leader, both in the private sector or the public sector.

In Japan being an alumnus of Waseda, University of Tokyo or Keio gives you a huge advantage if you aspire to be a leader in any sector.

In USA, going through any of the seven, Ivy League Universities ensures that your path to leadership is much smoother and shorter, forget about grades for now.

Moreover, going to these schools is not accidental, parents start glooming their kids early in life. Kids put on attires with logos of such schools and accompany parents on special days. More importantly, they go to elementary and high schools that have a record of taking kids to such prestigious schools. You may call that social engineering but it works.

Few countries do not have flagship institutions where the next generation of leaders is prepared.

History more than anything else plays a role in determining the evolution of elite institutions, they are often the oldest in the country, with unique traditions and a solid base of successful alumni who ensure the name is maintained, and the new graduates, get into the system with ease-the old boys network.

When Narc came to power, there was a popular observation that having passed through Makerere or Mang’u greatly increased your probability of getting a plum job in the government or a seat in the board of directors of a major firm. This observation cannot be 100% untrue.

From a marketing point of view, public schools in Kenya have reached the shake-up stage. It is unlikely that new pubic schools will reach the stature of Alliance or Mang’u or other national schools that have a tradition of excellence.

The shift to market economy in the ’80s came to education sector late. It started in the elementary and high school. The next move will be in the Universities. Currently, public Universities still predominate and take the best students, because of history and the fact that they have lucrative courses like medicine, law and engineering.

Private universities have definitely tried to build a reputation of discipline and philanthropy; they have outdone public universities in public relations. However, public universities have lately become less prone to strikes; may be the democratic space has expanded and the gap between schooling and reality has narrowed.

Another interesting change that has been taking place in Kenya is entrenchment of class-consciousness. For a long time, Universities in Kenya were classless; you could go to class with a minister’s daughter and even date her. Today, people are doing all they can to show their class, and schooling is one such avenue.

This has greatly benefited the private universities. Nevertheless, the public universities thwarted that by introducing the parallel programmes, another class matter.

So who will rule in future? Where will the new elites come from?

The answer will be surprise to you. In Kenya, we are yet to get the Bushes or the Kennedies. Therefore, for now, self-made people must continue ruling us, at least politically. Economically it might be a different story altogether. Could the high salaries MPs awarded themselves be a realisation of this gap between political leadership and economic leadership?

Without favour or prejudice, self-made Kenyans are more likely to go through public universities. With some, neglect public university students mature faster, and get the motivation to pursue the power, prestige and wealth that comes with political offices.

The University has now become universities. These universities are in a cut-throat competition for students. And so are the elite private high schools that are salivating over the decline of some national schools, courtesy of mismanagement.

The next phase will be competition for prestige and production of leaders, the shakers and movers in the country’s political and economic leadership. Marketers may call this positioning. Which schools and universities will these be? Which schools will produce members of the cabinet and captains of the industry by 2050? My bet is that these schools may already be there; you are free to name them and take your children there.

The Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) led by Leader of Official Opposition, Uhuru Kenyatta, jetted into the country on Friday after a trip to Lon­don where they received evidence from former Ethics Permanent Sec­re­tary, John Githongo, on Anglo Leasing scan­dal.

PAC has managed to keep evidence received from Githongo away from the nosy media in London only giving vague statements about what Githongo said. The team also de­cided to compile its report abroad to avoid unnec­essary dis­tractions they may be sub­jected to while in Kenya.

Now that the team is back, all eyes are set on it to help solve the puzzle of Anglo Leasing that is threatening the stability and future of Presi­dent Mwai Kibaki’s gov­ernment.

This is not the first time that a parliamentary committee is handling the Anglo Leasing issue. The pre­vious PAC led by South Mugirango MP, Omingo Magara, in­ves­ti­gated the scan­dal in 2004 and presented its report to Par­liament, but it was rejected after successful amendments to delete cer­tain para­graphs from it.

Unlike the previous team that summoned some of those involved while still in office, Uhuru’s team is undertaking the work when a good number of those implicated have stepped aside, leaving them with a free hand in the in­ves­ti­gations.

Speaking to Githongo while not on oath of office also gave them ad­van­tage of extracting valuable information that may have been kept away from the previous team. In the next few days, the team is expected to begin piecing together evidence from those implicated by Githongo and other people who dare to speak on the matter.

Obviously a lot of interests are at play on the matter and the team will find it difficult continuing with its work in the country given the attention it will attract and ex­pected machi­nations by those involved to subvert the cause of their work.

Before, there have been claims of individuals com­pro­mising MPs sitting in parliamentary committees to ma­nipu­late their reports. There have also been cases where members work to­gether only to disagree at the last minute when they begin pushing for the interests of their masters to be factored into the findings or recommendations of such reports.

So far we have not witnessed any of the above cases with the Uhuru team and we hope they will stay above trivi­alities that lead to such cases and concentrate on the noble duty of watching against plunder of public re­sources by government officials.

All that we ask is that they be diligent, accountable and single-mindedly pursue their job so that their reports do not suffer the same fate as previous ones. They must justify their budget to London by com­piling a report that will stand the test of time and help Ken­yans dis­man­tle corruption network.

Heed envoy’s advice

THAT Kenya‘s experiments with a coa­lition gov­ernment have become a cropper cannot be gain­said. Though the National Rainbow Coa­lition, Narc, was expected by many to pro­vide so­lutions to political problems facing the coun­try, the idea has become a very big dis­appointment.

No sooner had the Coalition been elected to office than its members began quarrelling over an unfulfilled power sharing Memo­ran­dum of Understanding (MoU), plunging the country into political instability that continue to de­fine Presi­dent Mwai Kibaki’s rule.

Many of Kibaki’s failures has been attributed to its inabil­ity to control the coalition which has since dis­in­te­grated with the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) quitting and joining the Oppo­sition. Though the coun­try is certain to be governed by coa­litions in future, nobody would like to go through the same ex­pe­riences we have had with Narc.

This is why we support advise by the outgoing German envoy, Bernd Braun, that the country should go slow on pre-election alliances. En­tering into coalition arrangements after elections is the only way to ensure they are formed on a basis of written agreements that bind leaders.